Word & image: Together they make content

February 17, 2010

Content is king. We’ve heard that so many times and in so many ways that it’s become almost impossible to dispute. After all, what is there without content, right?

At Studio-e, we think a little differently. Words are important, sure. As a copywriter, they are my daily tools; they are, in a sense, my purpose. And yet, they’re not everything. While I’d love to believe that people would read my words regardless of length or layout or appearance, regardless of the design, the fact of the matter is, they wouldn’t.

When we partner with our clients, no matter the project, we’re working to convey a message. To find, nurture, distill, refine and communicate a unique message about an institution to a specific audience. We do this with words, of course, but words paired with images. In our field, like the proverbial horse and carriage, you can’t have one without the other. Or rather, one isn’t effective without the other.

Design, when done right, is content. It, too, conveys a message. Words aren’t simply part of the design, or in the design. They are the design. And design doesn’t just look pretty. It speaks to you. It says something.

At an AIGA lecture we attended last year, Chris Pullman, former vice president of branding and visual communications at WGBH, stated that “the roots of graphic design are in language.” We encounter this fact every day at the studio: as a team of client, copywriter and designers, we start from the same place, with the same information and the same goal. We work together to convey a school’s unique character, its distinctive message, through word and image. And we respect one another’s abilities and expertise; we rely on one another because we know that, in order to be successful, we must share and build upon our collective strengths.